Renovation 101: Buying Materials, Our trip to the Akdo Warehouse Sale

Whether you are a homeowner or an investor, whenever there is an opportunity to expand your budget be prepared to take advantage of the opportunity.  Last week, RESOURCE360 had the opportunity to attend the AKDO Wharehouse sale at its Bridgeport, Ct location.  This twice a year sale provides an opportunity to purchase tile and stone slabs at up to 85% off retail price.  With two projects in progress, our tile need was rather large; 7 bathrooms and 2 kitchens.  In addition, we have a need for stone slabs for counter tops, fireplace surrounds, bench seats in showers, and vanity tops for the bathrooms.  With those material needs in mind, we asked our designer, Luanne Balzano, from LA Interiors to accompany us for a morning of shopping.

When attending a sale like this it is important to be prepared.  Many items are limited quantities, so buyers need to know what they want and more importantly, how much of it they need to complete the job.   When buying tile, make sure to purchase enough to complete the project, especially when using natural stone.  Buy extra tile versus being short and retain the additional tile for future repairs that may be needed.  If the quantity is underestimated, it can be difficult to get more, and even if more is available, the shortfall will definitely cause a delay in completing the renovation.  

Prior to going to the sale, we ran calculations for how much tile we need, including waste, and came up with approximately 1,150 sq. ft.  We also calculated the need for kitchen counter tops of approximately 115 sq. ft.  With that in hand, we headed out to the sale.  We arrived a little after 9 AM when the store opened and found a line of people ahead of us. After standing in line for about 45 minutes, we finally got into the store.  We waited another 30 minutes before it was our turn to enter the warehouse and begin looking for our materials.  Here is of photos from inside.  The balloons on the slabs represent slabs included in the sale.  Slabs without balloons were available for purchase at regular price.  In the foreground are some of the containers of tile:       

Tile

Since tile was our greater need, and most of the other buyers were also focused on tile, we started there before too many things sold out.  Our first two attempts ended mostly in disappointment.   We were totally shut out on White Haze Bricks we wanted for the kitchen backsplash and only got about 89 sq. ft of the Turkish Gray Bricks.  We were hoping to get over 200 sq. ft of the gray bricks.

Our biggest haul of the day was the ¾” x ¾” Turkish Gray Mosaic.  We bought close to 300 sq. ft as it works well both on the floor and the shower wall.

To round out the day we purchased 500 sq. ft of Carrera marble tile in three patterns: basketweave, herringbone, and running bond.  We also bought 47 sq. ft. of a special tile that we plan to use for a high-end designer touch.  We will show you this feature later as the project develops.

Slabs

While shopping for tile is competitive during the sale, shopping for slabs is less of a focus for most buyers.  Therefore, we can take a little more time roaming the aisles.  In the end, we wound up buying 5 slabs of marble; 1 Tropical Gray, 1 Daphne Gray, and 3 Silverstone. This is beyond what we will use for these projects, but since the Silverstone slabs were only $100, we bought some for future projects.

We found the Tropical Gray in the back corner and couldn’t really get a great picture of it.  But, we have used it before and bought it without much hesitation.  Lastly, we confirmed our kitchen counter top material as well, American Black granite.  While not included in the sale, we have used it before. It is reasonably priced and the last time we used it, the kitchen was stunning.  For kitchen counter tops, we use 1 ¼” thickness.

The Final Result

We had a great day at AKDO.  We were able to satisfy almost all of our tile requirements and picked up some great slabs as well.  Most of the tile will find its way into the bathrooms with some of it reserved for the kitchen backsplash.  The slabs can be used in a variety of ways.  Check out the pictures below of previous projects to see how these materials were used.  In the Kitchen, the American Black granite was paired with Thassos marble in a running bond pattern.  In the other Picture, Tropical Gray marble was used to make a seamless fireplace surround.  Check back to see how we use the materials purchased on our latest shopping trip.